PIL in SC seeks SIT probe into Rahul Gandhi's allegations of electoral roll manipulation

Amid clamour against Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar, a PIL in the Supreme Court has sought a probe by an SIT led by an ex-judge into allegations of electoral roll manipulation levelled by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi in Bengaluru Central and other constituencies.

Filed by advocate Rohit Pandey, the petition urged the top court to stop further revision or finalisation of electoral rolls be undertaken by the Election Commission until an independent audit of the rolls was done and the court's directions were complied with.

It also sought a direction to the poll panel to publish electoral rolls in accessible, machine-readable and OCR-compliant formats to enable meaningful verification, audit and public scrutiny.

In his August 7 press conference, Gandhi had presented some data and alleged "huge criminal fraud" in polls through "collusion" between the BJP and the poll panel. He had cited an analysis of voter rolls in a constituency in Karnataka last year.

Contending that the top court has consistently held free and fair elections to be a part of 'basic structure' of the Constitution, the petition said it cannot be diluted or subverted by any legislative or executive action.

As Gandhi alleged that "vote chori" (vote theft) is an atom bomb on our democracy", the Chief Electoral Officers of Karnataka and Maharashtra had asked him to share names of electors he claimed were "wrong" in the voters' list along with a signed declaration for poll authorities to initiate "necessary proceedings" in the matter.

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar had on August 17 said Gandhi should either declare on oath within seven days his allegations of irregularities in electoral rolls, or else his 'vote theft' claims would be rendered baseless.

The PIL urged the top court to issue binding guidelines to the Election Commission to ensure transparency, accountability and integrity in preparation, maintenance and publication of electoral rolls and mechanisms for detection and prevention of duplicate or fictitious entries.

"The petitioner has observed grave irregularities in the electoral rolls of Bengaluru Central Parliamentary Constituency (Mahadevapura Assembly Constituency), which, on the face of it, warrant urgent consideration by this court," the petition submitted.

The PIL alleged that in Maharashtra, after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and prior to the Assembly elections, within a span of around four months, about 39 lakh new voters were added to the electoral rolls against merely around 50 lakh voters added in the preceding five years.

"Such a sudden and disproportionate increase raises a serious question on the transparency of the Election Commission in the process of adding names to the voter list," it added.